Saturday, December 10, 2016

 Isaiah 35:4

They shall see the glory of the Lord,
   the majesty of our God. 

There is within us a longing for home—not just the home and family we have known all our lives but for the our true home, our ultimate home where we are surrounded and enveloped by a Love so great that there is nothing to do or say or be. 

We long for a Love who welcomes everything we are as we are, a Love that heals us and makes us feel whole deep inside, a Love our hearts have always wanted and needed but never knew how to get. We long for the home where we know the Love for which we were intended from the moment we drew out first breath.

This longing for home beats at our hearts. We can drown it out with countless activities and pleasures, with occupations and recreations. But moments come when the longing to know the place you a truly belong awakens. The day grows quiet. You light a candle. You see a wedge of geese plying a cold December wind, each one in its place, and you long for the place where Love is … and nothing else matters.

We long to be and know ourselves inside the Love God is.

You will never quite understand Christmas until you have felt this for home. Our best novelists and writers speak of it in every generation, wondering if it can be known or if it is only an illusion.

In these days, we shop and plan, prepare and wrap our packages. Amid the dash toward Christmas, the voice of our longing might get lost.

But it is there. It only takes a moment—a song, a star in the sky, a memory, a love lost … or found—and it springs to life. And that’s a good thing. It awakens our hearts to our truest humanity.

For us who believe … and hope, these days are a journey to Bethlehem, to a manger where a child is born, the child we say is God with us.

God does not grab us by the collar and demand that we kneel, obey and love him. Love cannot be demanded. It is awakened in us when we see and feel the Everlasting Love of God for us.

In the Christ child, God comes in immense Love to share our life, our joys, hopes and pains. He comes to show us the Love who stands with us and seeks to fill us … every moment. This Love is our home. The child is your home, the home you never knew you always wanted … and desperately needed.

Hold him and know the Love who holds you … and all time. He is your home. Wherever and whenever you see and feel and know the Love he is … you are home in the Love that is meant for you, and that Love fills you.

Come to Bethlehem and see the glory of the Lord. Come see the Love who wears a child’s face. See the child of Bethlehem … lying there. See his mother holding him and his father utterly confused, not knowing what to do. See the shepherds wander in, no less confused.

Come with them and see the Love who welcomes you … home.

Pr. David L. Miller